Hi All!
I’ve recently been curious about the sharing of information between different colleges. The NACAC does all it can to prevent this and I believe the Sherman Anti-Trust Act also has some power against this. One flaw I’ve found, however, comes from FAFSA.
We’re all advised to fill out FAFSA to get some aid at college but based on my recent readings, I believe the SAR form that FAFSA sends to each college on your FAFSA list, contains the names of the other institutions to which you are applying. I believe this enables middle-tier colleges (Northwestern, JHU, WashU…) to reject/waitlist students based on their assumption that very qualified students will instead accept offers from elite colleges. Many assumptions can be drawn from this. My main concern is whether or not this will adversely affect my or other applicants’ chances at schools. I haven’t seen any actual research on this topic but I believe this may be a fatal flaw in the system. Through the SAR, I believe you broadly proclaim which colleges you’re applying to.
Your thoughts?
One admissions officer told me that they can indeed see where else you applied from the FAFSA. She said they check it only for candidates that could go either way–say, lowest desirable candidates, and if the school is way down on the bottom in the order, then they assume the kid doesn’t really want to go there as much as the schools at the top. I grouped my daughter’s FAFSA by “like” schools and sent in three different ones. I listed all schools alphabetically. So her reach schools were all together on one, alphabetically, match schools on one, safeties on one. I don’t think it made any difference.
No, I understood that it already stopped this year:
https://studentaid.ed.gov/sa/fafsa/filling-out/school-list
“Note: Schools will not be able to see which other schools you listed on your FAFSA.”
@choirsandstages Thank you for that clarification! That’s a lot more reassuring.
@MurphyBrown I by no means mean these schools are easy to get into. I don’t even trust myself to get in necesarily. These schools are, however, undeniably a tier below (not in quality but in acclaim and desirability) schools like HYPSM.
I think colleges believe you will apply to other schools in addition to theirs. They don’t get mad at you for doing so. And in what universe are JHU, Northwestern and WashU middle tier colleges?
My understanding is that it’s already gone. And that’s the reason it’s gone–colleges were misusing it.